DreamWorks Animation Challenge

This section will regularly be updated with answers to more FAQ’s.

1. What is the goal of this challenge?
The primary goal is to find recent engineering graduates who can create visual output using their coding knowledge. The challenge winners will be shortlisted for the DreamWorks Effects Challenge program, and will be put through couple of rounds of interviews. Upon clearing the interviews, you will be put in 5 month intense training in DreamWorks Animation Studio in Glendale California, USA, and upon successful completion, will lead to full time employment in DreamWorks India Studio, Bangalore.

2. What is DreamWorks Effects Challenge Program?
The DWA Effects Challenge Program is a 5 month intensive training program starting Jan 2017 provided in DreamWorks Animation, Glendale, California, leading to a full time employment in DreamWorks Dedicated Unit India. It is designed to give recent graduates a firm knowledge base in the concepts critical to the design and animation of visual effects in CG feature animation. It is a fast paced course in which concepts will be coming at you sometimes at blistering speed. It covers programming, rendering and simulation. It does so by stepping you into fundamentals: matrices, ray tracing, color and deformers. We will throw you in the deep end, but don’t worry, we’ll be there with plenty of life savers to throw to you when we think you’re drowning! The program is designed to build solid infrastructure of concepts through progressive lessons which build upon each other, presenting even more complex challenges. Critical to your success is not only your commitment to learning new and potentially foreign concepts, but your ability to work within a production team environment and seek advice from experts. Who knows? You may find that occasionally you are that expert!

3. Great! I am up for it. How do I participate?
You need to Register for the competition and follow all the relevant guidelines, and important dates mentioned on the site here, thereby provide the submissions before the deadline mentioned.

4. Is this Challenge open for Students / Professionals? What if I am part time studying and part time working?
The Challenge is open for all current students or part time or professionals who graduated within last 18 months.

5. When will the Problem Statement be announced? Will I be intimated by email about the same?
Problem Statement of the challenge and other specific details pertaining to this category is live. However, the assets, framework, scene file and additional references will be made accessible just before the start of the challenge (Sep 30th 2016, 8:50 AM). Participants will receive email notifications for the same.

6. What are the timings of the Challenge?
The Challenge starts at 9 a.m. on Sep 30th, 2016 and wraps by 9.00 a.m. on the Oct 7th, 2016.

7. Where do I submit my files?
You can submit your files on the hackerearth platform. Participants will be required to achieve visual output (images) through an algorithm/code/ etc. The guidelines and submission formats will be included in the Problem statement. Kindly check back the Problem Statement.

8. I submitted my files before the deadline. Can I resubmit if I want to?
Yes, multiple submissions are allowed till Oct 7th 2016. The latest submission made on or before the deadline shall be considered as final submission. Submissions made after Oct 7th 2016, 9:00 AM will be not be entertained.

9. I have a question that I need an answer to. Where can I ask?
There is a discussion forum on the platform wherein any queries posted by the candidates will be addressed at the earliest.

10. What kind of Coding challenge will be given?
As this is the Animation / VFX / Gaming industry related event, the coding challenge will be related to simulations and procedurally creating images.

11. Is there a registration fee?
No. This is an open challenge, and it requires no registration fee.

12. Do I need to have any specific qualifications to be a participant in this Challenge?
If you love to code, you are more than welcome to participate in this challenge.

13. How is the environment? Will your environment support any language? Will you provide any IDE and DB for us to work on ideas?
Participants are free to use the language they are comfortable with (Eg. Python/Java/C/C++ etc). The framework and environment pertaining to the challenge will be updated soon.

14. Does one have to be online and available for the entire duration of the Challenge?
No, one does not need to be logged in on HackerEarth or be online for the entire duration. You can keep working on your local system based on the given problem statement and then submit it on HackerEarth. The submission guidelines will be provided under Problem Statement section soon.

15. Since there is no specific technology mentioned, are there any restrictions on using number of pre-built libraries?
There is no restriction to use any language, technology stack, or libraries. You can use any of them to achieve the output.

16. Do I need to give a demo?
If you want you can submit a small presentation or video that demos your submission, however it's not mandatory, and only good to have. In case you are shortlisted, you might be invited to demo your submission at a physical event, details of which will be shared with sufficient advance notice.

17. The submissions need to have a solid backend for data storage like SQL, SharePoint etc. since its online, is it accepted to show only the prototype of it?
Participants are not required to create any software application. They will need to achieve a visual output through an algorithm/code/ etc. However you are allowed to submit just the prototype.

18. Is it is a team submission?
No, the team size is fixed to 1, hence no team can be formed.

19. Who will own the IP(Intellectual Property) Rights to the product that I have built?
The participants will have all rights and own the IP of the submission. However, all code needs to be in public domain (open source) so that it can be evaluated by the judges.

20. The sample code is given in WebGL/JavaScript, am I free to use any framework of my choice for instance, OpenGL/C++?
YES. Definitely.

21. Can I use Libraries/Code snippets for reading and rendering meshes and textures etc?​
Yes, you are permitted. However we want see your own implementation of spark dynamics and collisions. You are free to learn the concepts from anywhere.

22. It is mentioned we are not allowed to use any physics/collision libraries and need to simulate everything manually but we can use graphic library/frameworks to render everything right?
Yes, you are free to use graphics libraries. Some examples include OpenGl, WebGL, Three.js, Ogre, DirectX ..etc depending on your platform or framework. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_3D_graphics_libraries

23. We can use graphic frameworks too? like "libgdx"(its just a wrapper around A4. OpenGL) if I am not adding any physics engine to it like Box2d and doing everything manually?
As long as you guys code the physics and maths and the simulation yourself it's okay. wrappers around graphics libraries are okay. you are not allowed to use game engines though.

24. Can I use pygame?
It says pygame is a wrapper around SDL. SDL is okay however if pygame give you particle effects and collisions then it's essentially a game engine.

25. Can we use Matlab with simulink model?
No, we do not want you to be using simulation softwares.

26. Is the effect needs to be in 3D or 2D will be fine too?
This boils down to an artistic choice. We have given the freedom of camera angles to showcase your work. You might want to work in 2D first and eventually move to 3D. However some of our levels require you to collide against complex geometries like the "stanford bunny" which can only be viewed in 3D.

27. What all application of coding?
Erm what? If you mean what programming applications you can use to code then you are free to use any language (C/C++, python, JAVA, javascript, etc) platform (Linux/Mac/Windows/ Web browsers etc) or IDEs (Codeblocks, VS, vim, notepad etc). Since your end submission is mainly a couple of videos rather than a software it's fine. We will however need to see your code for the platform you used to generate your images.

28. Are we allowed to use additional assets (of our own) such as textures in our scene?
You are allowed to light your scene, add materials, shaders. However you are not allowed to add new geometry that interacts with your sparks or modify the existing geometry.

29. Can we use custom models and texture maps as long as scene is maintained as given in the sketch? What about lighting? Does it have any impact on evaluation of any sorts?
Yes, you can use texture maps as that does not change your sparks functioning. Custom models are allowed as long as they look exactly like the original models. (eg. You are free to process given models to add normals to them if you want.) You cannot add your own new models ( you cannot introduce a teapot model to scene for example) While the primary goal is to see the working of your sparks system, presentation matters. A scene with nice lighting and textures will only be considered after all the physics, maths and collisions have been correctly implemented.

30. What all are allowed Im not clear ? Is open gl and pygame allowed ? So are you saying the graphics doesnt matter ,only the functioning does ??
If you get the "functioning" right how do you plan to present it or show that it works? We're not expecting graphs and charts. DreamWorks belongs to the Computer Graphics industry so it's important that you use a graphics library to showcase your "functionality". We've just given you freedom to use any graphics library you want. Only the part that we want to test you for we have prohibited libraries. For example game libraries are prohibited. asd asasd asd as d asd asd asd